Our picksLack of Global Biosafety Regulation | One in Eight Terror Suspects Is a Child | Vertical Farming, and more

Published 11 June 2021

·  Ransomware Attacks Are Hitting Small Business—Some of the Targets Are Even Military Subcontractors

·  Inside Singapore’s Huge Bet on Vertical Farming

·  Task Force Finds No Record of Reunification for 2,127 Children Separated at Border

·  Gov. Greg Abbott Says Texas Will Build a Border Wall, but Doesn’t Yet Give Details on Cost or Location

·  COVID-19 Laboratory Leak Theory Highlights Blatant Lack of Global Biosafety Regulation

·  The Far-Right Paramilitary Wannabes Feeding Mike Flynn’s Conspiracy Machine

·  U.S. Withdrawal Constrains Counterterrorism Options

·  One in Eight Terror Suspects Is a Child - the Highest Proportion on Record

·  Could Iran Use Shi’ite Centers in France to Spread Terror? – Report

·  FBI Chief Calls Capitol Attack Domestic Terrorism and Rejects Trump’s Fraud Claims

Ransomware Attacks Are Hitting Small Business—Some of the Targets Are Even Military Subcontractors  (A. J. Vicens, Mother Jones)
They might not always make headlines but hacks are becoming common.

 Inside Singapore’s Huge Bet on Vertical Farming (Megan Tatum, MIT Technology Review)
Covid-19 has made food security a major issue. Now Singapore is investing heavily in high-tech farming as it tries to become more self-sufficient.

Task Force Finds No Record of Reunification for 2,127 Children Separated at Border  (Bridget Johnson, HSToday)
The task force led by the Department of Homeland Security to examine and help facilitate efforts to reunite children separated from their parents at the border said there is no record yet of 2,127 children being returned to their families.
The Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families this week submitted to President Biden its first progress report mandated by executive order, reviewing the cases of 3,913 children who were separated from their families between July 1, 2017, and Jan. 20, 2021, under the previous administration’s policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. The task force is reviewing an additional 1,723 separations from that time frame, as well as additional case files from January to July 2017 to determine if there are more family separations that were used as a deterrence measure than previously thought — noting that the Trump administration began discussing family separations as early as February 2017.
Most family separations took place between April and July 2018, the task force reported, with a slight increase in separations between April and July 2019 consistent with seasonal migration flows.

Gov. Greg Abbott Says Texas Will Build a Border Wall, but Doesn’t Yet Give Details on Cost or Location  (Heidi Perez-Moreno, Texas Tribune)
The governor suggested more details would be released next week. The announcement Thursday of several initiatives is the latest in an ongoing conflict between Abbott, a Republican, and Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.

COVID-19 Laboratory Leak Theory Highlights Blatant Lack of Global Biosafety Regulation  (TheHealthReporter)
He revived debate It may never be properly resolved whether COVID-19 could be the result of an accidental release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Either way, we run the risk of not seeing the wood of the trees.
While the World Health Organization (WHOreported in February, this leak was “extremely unlikely,” after all advised more work was needed to rule it out. (Cont.)